It's NOT too hard to travel with kids!

Have you ever been told it’s too hard to travel with kids?

I knew having a baby would change my life forever, but I went into this determined to still have a life.

So, since the week Ivy was born, I’ve made an effort to get outside for walks, try new restaurants, go for coffee and hang out with friends. I was hard in the beginning and I would come home exhausted, but it made me feel like I hadn’t lost all my freedom.

She's three now and we're doing more and more...road-trips, adventures, crossing things off our Bucket List, being involved with church and friends. It's been amazing to prove to myself that I can have a kid and still do all the things I did before!

What’s insane is to think back. With four small girls, my parents traveled the world. We lived in Ethiopia and traveled to Kenya. We spent the summer in Peru and Bolivia and then moved to Bolivia the next year. We’ve gotten lost roadtripping the USA, broken down as we drove through the African countryside and burnt out the breaks in the Andes mountains. I’m familiar with too many airports to count. We’ve piled into subways, trains, buses and taxis all over the world. Getting lost was our style.

We swam in jungle rivers with piranhas, anacondas and alligators, found ourselves in the midst of protests and tear gas, run from the police and tried to fend off lose monkeys while they swung on my youngest sisters neck. I’ve got a lifetime of crazy memories and, until I moved back to the USA for college, thought that my life was totally normal.

But the truth is, my sisters and I experienced more during our childhoods than most in their lifetime. Based on my history, you’d think nothing would scare me. But I have to work hard to be adventurous as a mom. It’s really made me admire my parents laid back attitude and trust in the Lord.

I have so many good memories from my childhood abroad. And the thing is, I didn’t have a cell phone for my parents to check in on me all the time. And yet they allowed me a lot of freedom to explore, hang out with friends and truly experience the cultures we lived in. I want that for Ivy. But I realize that if I want that for her, I have to start by being brave myself. Right now.

Life doesn’t stop because I had a baby. It’s different, sure. It’s hard, yes. But, it’s new and fresh and can be a lot more exciting.

Having kids doesn't have to change anything. Just plan, be flexible, move forward and keep doing what you love, teaching your kid to love it all with you!